February 21, 2011

5 Deadly Sins of Business Video Storytelling

I stumbled across an interesting article on the American Express Open Forum this week. “7 Deadly Sins of Business Storytelling” was written by authors Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. The article got me to thinking about the biggest mistakes companies make when presenting their company story on video. To borrow a page from Aaker and Smith, let’s call this list “5 Deadly Sins of Business Video Storytelling.”

1) Too long: Just because your annual report takes up 50 pages of paper does not mean the video that introduces your company to the world should be 10 minutes long. Feel free to leave out some facts and figures. If you make your story compelling and tell it concisely, you will leave your viewers wanting to know more.

3) Missing people: The best stories involve real people. So do the best videos. Seek out interesting employees or customers who have benefitted from your product or service. Satisfied customers are a great resource. Make them part of your story.

4) No clear goal: Before creating a company video, you need to determine what you want it to accomplish. You can’t wait until the day the camera shows up at your office to decide who you are trying to reach. Knowing the end goal will help you develop the right kind of story.

5) Poor quality: How many videos have you seen where the production values don’t match the image of the company? There’s nothing wrong with shooting your family vacation on a home video camera. But it makes little sense to try to save money by doing the same thing with the video that you put on your company’s website. There’s a formula we live by in the video business:

Bad Lighting + Bad Sound + No Tripod = Unwatchable Video

To put your best foot forward and avoid these deadly sins, you need to invest in a professional production team like ours at Point Across Media.